IT World • Created June 1, 2015 04:00

4 billion people in Nigeria, other countries remain offline –ITU

ITU, in a new data, also said the proportion of households with internet access at home advanced from 18 per cent in 2005 to 46 per cent in 2015. But it said that four billion people in the developing world remain offline. Of the nearly one billion people living in the Least Developing Countries (LDCs), […]

4 billion people in Nigeria, other countries remain offline –ITU
4 billion people in Nigeria, other countries remain offline –ITU

ITU, in a new data, also said the proportion of households with internet access at home advanced from 18 per cent in 2005 to 46 per cent in 2015.
But it said that four billion people in the developing world remain offline. Of the nearly one billion people living in the Least Developing Countries (LDCs), 851 million do not use the internet, according to the ITU figures.
The new figures released by ITU indicate that over the past 15 years, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have grown in an unprecedented way, providing huge opportunities for social and economic development.
The new figures track ICT progress and show gaps in connectivity since the year 2000, when world leaders established the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Today, there are more than 7 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, up from 738 million in 2000. Globally, 3.2 billion people are using the internet, of which two billion live in developing countries.
“These new figures not only show the rapid technological progress made to date, but also help us identify those being left behind in the fast-evolving digital economy, as well as the areas where ICT investment is needed most,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, at the press conference to launch the report in Geneva last week.
“ICTs will play an even more significant role in the post-2015 era and in achieving future Sustainable Development Goals as the world moves faster and faster towards a digital society,” said Mr Brahima Sanou, the Director of the ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau. “Our mission is to connect everyone and to create a truly inclusive information society, for which we need comparable and high-quality data and statistics to measure progress.”

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